


The Great Avengers Halloween Costume Swap Party That Bruce Wished He'd Never Agreed To

by Blizzard_Fire



Series: ThorBruce Week 2019 [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adorable Bruce Banner, Bruce Banner Has Issues, Clothing swap, Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Humor, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), ThorBruce Week, ThorBruce Week 2019, at all, halloween party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-29 00:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21401083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzard_Fire/pseuds/Blizzard_Fire
Summary: Halloween.Bruce frowned at himself in the mirror. Officially it was a "Halloween/Let's All Dress Up As Each Other" party. Unofficially, it was a "Welcome Home Bruce and Thor" party. Bruce couldn't have felt less like celebrating right now.Valkyrie snorted. 'What are you wearing?'Bruce hadn't felt like himself since he'd woken up on Sakaar. He hadn’t even bothered to hide his attraction to Thor. The first words out of his stupid mouth had been to compliment him on his hair.Now here he was, wearing a cheap red cape, a plastic winged helmet and a long-sleeved suit with fake muscles. 'I know. I'm regretting it already.'
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Thor
Series: ThorBruce Week 2019 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1524101
Comments: 5
Kudos: 74
Collections: Thorbruce Week 2019





	The Great Avengers Halloween Costume Swap Party That Bruce Wished He'd Never Agreed To

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Fall/Change" for ThorBruce Week 2019.
> 
> *blows dust off this fic* gasp, a relic! This was the very first Bruce fic I wrote back in I dunno March this year? The only thing I'd seen was Ragnarok, hence why the canon's whatever. I rewrote the whole thing in one day, phew. It's just a silly clusterfuck of characters but it fits the theme pretty well so here ya go

Halloween.

Bruce frowned at himself in the mirror. Tony loved throwing parties; at least things hadn't changed too much since he'd been away. Officially it was a "Halloween/Let's All Dress Up As Each Other" party. Unofficially, it was a "Welcome Home Bruce and Thor" party. Bruce couldn't have felt less like celebrating right now.

'You ready?' Valkyrie strode into his bedroom as if she owned it. She'd refused to wear a Halloween costume, but had agreed to let Peter draw some spiderwebs on her face. 'Tony's hopping around like his arse is on fire and I want to drink this party dry.' She snorted. 'What _are_ you wearing?'

When Bruce had first thought of who he was going to dress as he'd thought he was a genius, and had fallen about laughing when he’d picked out his costume. After spending so much time as the Hulk, it made sense that his emotions would be unbalanced for a while. Everything seemed five times funnier. A week later, and he'd started to feel like his old self again, and he was horrified he’d ever agreed to Tony's idea. His whole time on Sakaar felt like a drunken dream. He hadn’t even bothered to hide his attraction to Thor. The first words out of his stupid mouth had been to compliment him on his hair.

Now here he was, wearing a cheap red cape, a plastic winged helmet and a long-sleeved suit with fake muscles. 'I know. I'm regretting it already.'

'You two are so precious, you know that?' She smirked at a joke he didn't get. 'Come _on_. Stop moping, it'll be fun.'

Bruce gave up on tidying his reflection and trudged after her.

The music was audible from three floors below. Bruce’s stomach dropped as he stepped out of the elevator and into chaos. The room was packed with costume-clad Avengers whirling around to thumping bass. Red lights danced over the walls, illuminating plastic skeletons and fluorescent green spiderwebs (Peter had put them up earlier). It looked like Bruce's worst nightmare.

'Having fun?' asked a voice in his ear. Bruce jumped. Tony stood smugly, wearing Stephen's flowing red robes, minus invisible breeze.

'Uh, yeah. It's great,' he lied. How did eye contact work again? He stared at Tony's nose instead.

'Looks good on you.' He gestured at Bruce's tacky muscle suit. 'Maybe it's time Banner got his own uniform. Good to have you back, Brucie.'

Bruce took a large sip of juice to save himself from replying. He really had forgotten how to talk to people, even his best friend. 'Thanks,' he croaked.

Stephen pulled away from the food table, Iron Man suit whirring. 'How the hell do you fight in this thing Tony? It's so damn hot.'

Valkyrie looked between them. 'Oh, you guys swapped? I literally couldn't tell. You're like the same person.' As she got into a joking argument with Stephen, Bruce made his excuses and slunk off.

Like any self-respecting introvert, Bruce made a beeline for the buffet table. The lights cast everything in a red glow, making it hard to tell what they were actually eating. Bruce was reaching for a pumpkin-spiced cookie when the back of his hand brushed against a bare waist. He looked down. A _man's_ bare waist. His gaze skimmed over hard pectorals and hip bones and - 

'Banner!' Thor beamed down at him. 'You made it!'

Bruce abruptly wished he'd gone for something manlier, like a chicken drumstick. 'It's not a party without me, right?' he said, surprising himself. His brain shut down as Thor poured himself a drink, bicep flexing. The arms were one thing, but that chest... had Thor forgotten it was a costume party? Who the hell was he supposed to be? At least in the red light no one saw Bruce blushing.

'Good to have the team together, isn't it?' Thor smiled at him.

Bruce nodded, stuffing the cookie in his mouth to stop himself from gawping.

Thor bent over the table to reach for a cupcake. Bruce choked.

The next song that came on was an obnoxious dubsep remix of _Monster Mash_ (bastards, that was Bruce's favourite song ever, you couldn't improve on perfection). As the dancers whirled around and people laughed and shouted, suddenly it was all too much for Bruce. Too loud, too busy, too dark. It was an environment Hulk would revel in, but Bruce couldn't remember how to function at parties anymore. He imagined Hulking out right here. The food churned in his belly.

He didn't realise he was shaking until Thor pulled the cookie from his hand and bent down to meet his eyes. 'Banner? Are you with me?' His words were a ghost of breath on his lips.

Bruce nodded dumbly, gaze fixed on those soft lips. He needed to keep it together. Which Avenger wandered around shirtless, anyway?

The lights went up and they jumped apart.

Everyone groaned. 'Sorry folks!' Tony called, microphone in hand. 'But as king of Halloween parties it's my duty to declare the best costume of the night. Seriously, it's so good you'd think it was the real thing. Where are you, Legolas?'

Bruce half-turned to smile at Thor and nearly had a heart attack.

Thor was... _green_. Cheap body paint covered his face, neck and bare torso, and he wore only a pair of ragged purple pants. He smiled innocently back at Bruce.

Bruce ran.

A shriek of laughter from Wanda. Clint had just walked in, wearing black shorts and Nat's tiny leather jacket. It barely zipped over his hairy chest. Bruce fought his way through the crowd, made it to the elevator and hammered on the button.

'Banner, wait!' The Hulk ran after him, throwing out an arm just before the doors could close. 'What's the matter?'

The sudden absence of sound was disorientating. Bruce leaned against the elevator wall, wringing his hands. 'You really don't see what's wrong with this?' He pointedly looked him up and down.

Thor's face fell. 'Not good?'

'Considering I was trapped as him for two years? No. Not good.' He stared at the floor. Even his bare feet were green. 'I haven't felt... like myself since I woke up on Sakaar. Like all my emotions were stronger. If Hulk's that powerful now, I don't know how I can keep him in check anymore. All this - ' He pulled off his helmet and dropped it on the floor. '-feels trivial. People died and everyone's just partying and I can't - I can't pretend everything's the same.'

'Oh Bruce, I'm sorry.' He seemed to deflate. 'I thought it would amuse. I misjudged.'

'Yeah, you did.' He sighed. 'It's just... parties. People. Not my thing. I don't feel like I know who I am anymore.'

Thor nodded. 'You did seem different when you changed back on the Quinjet. But that's alright, what matters is that you're here and you're alive. The rest we can work out together.' As he stepped towards Bruce, the doors closed behind him. A green hand squeezed his shoulder. 'We're the Revengers, remember? We look out for each other.' He smiled. Bruce found it hard not to smile back.

'So we return from a month-long trip together in space, reunite with our friends... and we choose to dress up as each other.' Bruce patted the hand on his shoulder that hadn't let go yet.

Thor groaned. 'I should have just found one of your shirts, that would have been easier.'

'Wouldn't fit. You'd have ripped them.'

'True.'

'And Tony threw them out because everyone thought I was dead.'

'Of course. Sorry.' Despite being a literal god, Thor looked so small and remorseful as his shoulders hunched in dejection. He looked puzzled when Bruce chuckled. 'What?'

'It's hard to take you seriously when you're bright green.'

He folded his arms, suddenly uncharacteristically shy. 'I should probably change. Does Stark have any showers?'

_Pick one_, Bruce almost said with a laugh. Instead, he said, 'There's one in my room.' Had Thor ever watched a horror movie? Suddenly all he could think about was warm blankets and spiced hot chocolate. That was how Halloween _should _be celebrated.

Thor grinned. 'Lead on.'

**Author's Note:**

> I adore Ragnarok but it did do strange things to Bruce's character so this is also a fix-it of sorts. This may be my last contribution to TBW 2019, and if so thanks for following along! It's been a great exercise for producing stories quickly, and I'm going to enjoy reading everyone's hard work over the weekend (now I have more free time now I'm not writing like 5 at once anymore lol)
> 
> Also thank you to the mods who ran this thing, I was so happy to hear there'd be a proper ThorBruce Week this year and it's been lovely to see the fandom so busy <3


End file.
